US judge rules against Sudan for the attack on USS Cole

July 25, 2007 (WASHINGTON) — A US federal judge on Wednesday ordered Sudan to pay 7.9 million dollars to the families of the 17 sailors killed in the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole.

The bombing was carried out by two Yemeni militants with Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network who had trained in Sudan. The US destroyer was anchored in the Yemeni port of Aden at the time of the attack.

The Yemenis blew themselves up next to the Cole, punching a 12-meter (40-foot) hole in its side. Thirty-nine sailors were also wounded in the attack.

Federal Judge Robert Doumar in mid-March ruled that Sudan should be held accountable for the attack, and on Wednesday ruled that it must pay the families.

“The psychological effects on the survivors can never be erased, especially given that they were caused by a senseless act enabled by a rogue government,” Doumar wrote in his ruling.

“It is depressing to realize that a country organized on a religious basis with religious rule of law could and would execute its power for purposes which most countries would find intolerable and loathsome.”

The case was brought in federal court in Norfolk, Virginia, home to one of the largest US naval bases in the country.

Doumar’s 51-page ruling includes a list detailing the amount of money each relative in the case should get.

Amounts range from zero for some of the victim’s siblings, to a maximum of 781,000 dollars. Most payments for the victim’s wives, children and parents were in the 150,000 to 200,000 dollar range.

To come up with the figures Doumar considered factors such as the time each sailor would have likely stayed in the navy, the age of death, and the dead person’s estate “from which children had a reasonable expectation of benefiting.”

The money would come from some 68.2 million dollars worth of Sudanese assets that US officials have frozen due to the country’s links to terrorism.

Relatives of the sailors who died in the bombing had originally asked for a total of 105 million dollars in damages.

After failing to stop the proceedings, arguing that US federal courts lacked jurisdiction in the affair, the government of Sudan refused to participate in the trial.

Experts who testified at the two-day trial in March about Sudan’s support of Al-Qaeda included former CIA Director James Woolsey.

(AFP)